a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Preseason Game 2 Jazz vs. Thunder: Snapshots

“Let me tell you something. I have no problem with taking my shirt off. I’m all right. I’ll take it off right now if you want.” — Enes Kanter, post-game

I love how Enes managed to pull this off with an air of blasé, unthinking nonchalance when he was up practicing this move in his bathroom mirror the night before.

So every Jazz player that was available, including training camp invitees, played at least nine minutes. On the other end of the court, Kevin Durant didn’t play after the first half, and Russell Westbrook and James Harden (and the injured Kendrick Perkins, and the injured Thabo Sefalosha) didn’t play period. In other words, it’s the preseason.

Moving onto snapshots from the game. These are the kind of moments I love:

Earl Watson having a tender moment with a teammate, and Big Al Jefferson patting Derrick Favors’ head (awwwww):

Enes’ dunk, and Algonquin Bricklayer’s alley-oop from Chris Quinn (Algonquin’s mother for some unknown reason knows him as “Alec Burks”):

Big Al’s reaction to Enes’ dunk, and Enes and Alec “discussing” who had the better dunk:

Quotage**Randy Foye on playing point guard: Oh, it’s different, but I like. Because, you know, I’m not a point guard. I can play the point; I can bring the ball up; I can handle the ball. But you know, I’m more of a slasher and a scorer, and I think Alec is the same way. So if he got it going, I could go to the point, hit him, and he do what he gotta do. If I got it going, then he can go the point and just let me get off screens and use each other. But in this system, I really like playing the point and just being the veteran out there, being vocal, getting the guys to their spots. I’m liking playing this point guard position.

**Big Al on the absence of Paul Millsap: Anytime you don’t have Paul out there, you could tell it’s a big part of something is missing. But he taking care of his personal bidness [grandmother’s funeral] right now, and we gon hold it down til he get back.

**Big Al on Enes: I’m always going to give him a hard time, but off the court. On the court, he’s doing a great job. One thing I love about him, he listen. When you teach him something or talk to him about something, he correct it right there. The sky’s the limit for him.

**Enes on Big Al: When I’m on the court, Big Al is always trying to help me. Every time when I do something right, he’s always clapping me. But every time when I do something wrong, he’s coming over and say, “You should do this.” So he is like a big brother to me. He’s just helping me a lot on the court and also this summer. End of the season, we went to Santa Barbara and we just worked on footworks and just quickness, everything, and it just helped me a lot.

Unintentional Dirty Moment of the Night

Unintentional Dirty Quote Machines of the Night (UDQM)** Matt Harpring on Favors: He is a monster down there.** Steve Brown: Hayward looking like a pinball there, getting banged from the front and getting banged from the back. (H/T @shandonfan)** Brown: I thought Ty Corbin was going to go down on his knees for Violet Palmer. (H/T @shandonfan)** Harpring on Favors: His length, he does things very few players can do or ever could do…He can be that guy that can really plug up the middle.** Harpring: Big Al, the ability to finish. As always.** Brown: Too much tall timber in there.** Brown: Looking for Kanter down low, he’s got Aldridge on him. Aldridge gotta respect his speed and strength. Kanter just came out, but Aldridge pokes it away.